The Art of Hermetic Science

My work is a by-product of the visionary experiences I’ve been having since I was a child. Starting at the age of seven, they were basically out-of-body experiences that occurred in bed at night as I tried to go asleep. Instead of sleeping, I would leave my body, astrally projecting into another realm. In this space, I interacted and communicated with higher beings from another world. These types of situations went on until I was 13, when they stopped, perhaps because of the onset of testosterone and teen angst.

William Fields is a North Carolina-based artist represented at Luise Ross Gallery in New York. 

William Fields, Hermetica, 2005. Pastel and Prismacolor on paper, 26 x 41 in. Courtesy of Luise Ross Gallery.

My work is a by-product of the visionary experiences I’ve been having since I was a child. Starting at the age of seven, they were basically out-of-body experiences that occurred in bed at night as I tried to go asleep. Instead of sleeping, I would leave my body, astrally projecting into another realm. In this space, I interacted and communicated with higher beings from another world. These types of situations went on until I was 13, when they stopped, perhaps because of the onset of testosterone and teen angst. As a child I was more open to these kinds of experiences, but they started coming back to me again when I was in my late 20s, at which point they grew into a multitude of experiences. As a hermetic scientist, I communicate with spirits from different planetary spheres. Hermetic science is an esoteric religious practice much like I-Ching and Kabala. In direct opposition to mainstream religious practices, in which religion is fed to the masses by “experts” and “leaders”, esoteric practices enable spiritual devotees to enter into direct communication with Divine Providence, without any intermediaries intervening. The only other way to enter into such a direct experience of Divine Providence is through prayer. The two main forms of my spiritual practice for me are evoking these spirits, and communicating with them. My spiritual practice is also closely aligned with my artistic practice. In fact they are on in the same. My art-making process is a direct transmission of these hermetic invocations. If it’s successful—if the communication is good—then the piece is a direct transmission of the spirit. Entering into a state of semi-ecstasy, I produce these images using Prismacolor pencils and pastels on paper. This process can take anywhere from 30 days to three months depending on the kind of communication process I enter into. In making these images, I become a medium and through my art I both manifest the act of my spiritual practice, and I also create an archive of it.